Historically, strong opinions about digital vs. analog voice transponders have been made public here on the AMSAT-BB.
Since Chinese satellite LO-90 recently re-entered and is no longer available, I wanted to hear from those that are pro-digital-voice satellites on their experiences using it. LO-90 was single channel but it offered a perfect platform to experiment with digital voice on an amateur satellite.
I congratulate the team that built it for trying something new and giving us an opportunity to play with it.
It is my observation that the satellite had very little use, as evidenced by the telemetry dashboard statistics. Why was that? I seem to recall many pro-digital voice conversations on the AMSAT-BB in the past. This was an excellent opportunity to try digital voice, and yet so few did.
My excuse was that “life got in the way” and I didn’t spend the time until near the very end of its operational life. Unfortunately, I let time slip away and didn’t get to enjoy this fascinating digital voice experiment as much as I should have. Thankfully I was able to get my station up and running in time to hear my own voice, decode, and submit telemetry before re-entry.
Are we ready for digital voice? Why or why not?
73, Clayton W5PFG
Hi Clayton!
I was active with all of LO-90's capabilities. In addition to the digital voice transponder, several of us also enjoyed commanding it to take pictures and downloading telemetry (including the .JPG pictures when we requested them to be taken).
Everyone enjoys different aspects of our hobby; I particularly like things that require a lot of cooperation between computer & radio. So, LO-90 was a perfect fit for me and others.
It was also a great opportunity to get more familiar with GNU Radio and the related apps developed by Harbin University as well as by others in the Amateur Radio community. We're really fortunate to have so many folks with the programming skills to jump in and add value (and fun!) when new satellites show up in orbit.
-Scott, K4KDR
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On Thu, Apr 4, 2019 at 3:27 PM Clayton Coleman W5PFG via AMSAT-BB < amsat-bb@amsat.org> wrote:
Historically, strong opinions about digital vs. analog voice transponders have been made public here on the AMSAT-BB.
Since Chinese satellite LO-90 recently re-entered and is no longer available, I wanted to hear from those that are pro-digital-voice satellites on their experiences using it. LO-90 was single channel but it offered a perfect platform to experiment with digital voice on an amateur satellite.
I congratulate the team that built it for trying something new and giving us an opportunity to play with it.
It is my observation that the satellite had very little use, as evidenced by the telemetry dashboard statistics. Why was that? I seem to recall many pro-digital voice conversations on the AMSAT-BB in the past. This was an excellent opportunity to try digital voice, and yet so few did.
My excuse was that “life got in the way” and I didn’t spend the time until near the very end of its operational life. Unfortunately, I let time slip away and didn’t get to enjoy this fascinating digital voice experiment as much as I should have. Thankfully I was able to get my station up and running in time to hear my own voice, decode, and submit telemetry before re-entry.
Are we ready for digital voice? Why or why not?
73, Clayton W5PFG
Hi Clayton,
TL;DR: I think it was Linux/GNU Radio that limited the uptake.
For myself I had a couple of contacts via the satellite, it was mostly due to the logistics of the software stack required. for myself I have my automated station running on the Windows with SatPC32 and some custom software for controlling antenna settings so this needs to be running and for LO-90 I needed a separate computer running Linux with GNU Radio, sadly that landed during a period where I moved and no longer had a permanent setup for a while.
I'm all for a digital satellite, in fact, I'd like to see the AMSAT community launch another one as in theory could have quite a few signals in the same bandwidth of a standard FM sat, but for the community to "take it up" I think the software supporting it needs to be Windows/Multiplatform in an easy to use form as not everyone is comfortable with GNU Radio, let alone Linux.
I suspect for portable ops to take it up, if a software setup could run on a little arm board or similar without much hassle again people would use it with simpler setups.
Hopefully, we can launch another.
73,
Peter.
On Thu, 4 Apr 2019 at 20:27, Clayton Coleman W5PFG via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
Historically, strong opinions about digital vs. analog voice transponders have been made public here on the AMSAT-BB.
Since Chinese satellite LO-90 recently re-entered and is no longer available, I wanted to hear from those that are pro-digital-voice satellites on their experiences using it. LO-90 was single channel but it offered a perfect platform to experiment with digital voice on an amateur satellite.
I congratulate the team that built it for trying something new and giving us an opportunity to play with it.
It is my observation that the satellite had very little use, as evidenced by the telemetry dashboard statistics. Why was that? I seem to recall many pro-digital voice conversations on the AMSAT-BB in the past. This was an excellent opportunity to try digital voice, and yet so few did.
My excuse was that “life got in the way” and I didn’t spend the time until near the very end of its operational life. Unfortunately, I let time slip away and didn’t get to enjoy this fascinating digital voice experiment as much as I should have. Thankfully I was able to get my station up and running in time to hear my own voice, decode, and submit telemetry before re-entry.
Are we ready for digital voice? Why or why not?
73, Clayton W5PFG _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
participants (3)
-
Clayton Coleman W5PFG -
Peter Goodhall (2M0SQL) -
Scott